I got excited at the headline of this post because I love the idea of community maintained personal site directories. Was disappointed to get into the description and linked Git repository and learn that it's only for sites that have gotten some traction on hacker news before. Was hoping it would be a way to stumble upon potentially underrepresented content from folks in the hacker news community who don't normally get attention.
This is probably a "me" problem for assuming otherwise (you even have HN in your URL), but it's not what I expected from a post asking people to share their personal websites.
edit: judging by the number of personal website links posted here that do not meet that criteria, it appears I was not the only one with the wrong impression.
> Was disappointed to get into the description and linked Git repository and learn that it's only for sites that have gotten some traction on hacker news before.
Yes, I was not entirely happy with the restrictive wording either. The original requirement was added mainly out of concern about spam submissions (blogspam, AI-generated content and similar). But the quality of submissions has been surprisingly good and I am genuinely delighted by the number of interesting websites I have came across in the last few hours.
So I have gone ahead and removed the overly restrictive criteria language.
> Was hoping it would be a way to stumble upon potentially underrepresented content from folks in the hacker news community who don't normally get attention.
Yes, that was exactly my intention as well. Thanks for raising this concern. It gave me the push to update the README and make the intent clearer.
OP should change it to be what most of us thought it would be. In case not, I’m adding this to favorites so I can continue checking out all the sites later.
I mentioned in a sibling thread that this requirement was originally
added out of caution, mainly to discourage spam submissions. It no
longer seems necessary, and I was not entirely happy with it either,
so I have removed it now. Thanks for the discussion here, which prompted me to drop the restrictive requirement.
TheOldNet runs a decent WebRing that still gets new sites added to it pretty regularly, and is almost always just personal websites/blogs. I quite like it (and my site is on it)
There's also geekring.net that is similar, and a few others that are still actively updated.
I still prefer WebRings for finding good personal sites, it has that old-web "exploration and discovery" type feeling that makes it actively satisfying to find new sites.
Everyone think of a number between 0~9, put it in a bracket (so that it's search-friendly), and add it to their post, e.g. "[7] check out my example.com".
Readers of this thread are then encouraged to search for a random number between 0~9, search for it (e.g., "[5]") via browser, do a few "find next" (just to randomize), and then visit as many results as they enjoy.
The problem with https://ooh.directory/ is that nobody can tell what gets added and what doesn't. Submissions go through an opaque review process and a lot of good submissions don't make it. If you search for your favorite bloggers there, chances are that they're missing from there.
I mean, it makes sense to restrict outside submissions at least nominally, while being more lenient within the community, given that the project is community-focused.... but yes, I did feel a bit apprehensive when I looked at the repo after I'd already been added.
This is probably a "me" problem for assuming otherwise (you even have HN in your URL), but it's not what I expected from a post asking people to share their personal websites.
edit: judging by the number of personal website links posted here that do not meet that criteria, it appears I was not the only one with the wrong impression.